


Unlucky Circumstance

by gigiree



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Love Potion/Spell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 07:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10531749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gigiree/pseuds/gigiree
Summary: When an Akuma that causes love at first sight dusts Marinette, the situation turns dire. Chat Noir struggles to save everyone with no Ladybug in sight and only a blindfolded Marinette helping him.Based on the love spell scenario.





	1. Unlucky Circumstance

It’s certainly a case of Murphy’s Law. It’s certainly and expectedly his bad luck that had caused this.

Or rather he’d blame this entirely on that if Ladybug was anywhere in sight. Beyond all the chaos of screaming teenagers and a city reduced to canoodling, love struck citizens, there’s no sight of red and black.

There’d hardly been enough time to transform before the akuma, aptly named Lovestruck, had broken through the school’s decidedly poor security system. Chat Noir was left with little recourse but to fend him off and corral as many of his unaffected classmates as he could into a safe space.

He leaves Kim behind. It’s too late for the boy. He’s already sobbing into his hands and crying about his one sided love for Alix.

(She’s torn between amusement and something bordering on embarrassment as she runs out the door.)

“Hey, Lovestruck! Your type of love isn’t real! We don’t want it!” Someone shouts behind the screaming/swooning mass of students.

And then he sees her. Awkward, cute, stupidly brave Marinette trying to distract Lovestruck who flies above them on his gilded cloud.

He’s already lobbed a handful of that almost pretty rose gold dust. She tries to dodge, but the dust is everywhere and falls over her in a glittering shower of horror, and Chat is too late.

A resounding NOOOO echoes across the courtyard. Faster than he can move, Alya Cesaire is already in front of Marinette. Her trembling hands are covering Marinette’s eyes.

Alya gives Chat Noir a pleading look, and he jumps into action. He is surprised at how much bitterness and fear has latched onto his chest when the thought of poor, sweet Marinette falling for a random stranger crosses his mind.

It drives him faster. Drives him harder. Makes his baton spin until it seems like a solid flat circle heading towards Lovestruck. It’s fast enough to dissipate any dust thrown his way.

The akuma seems to know that this opponent is too fierce, and while Hawkmoth’s commands echo strongly in his hazy thoughts, the call of love tugs at him. Tells him that Paris is a city of love and lights and that there’s plenty more to spread.

He and his cloud disappear into the blue sky with a whirl of glitter.

Chat Noir grits his teeth and bites back a scream of frustration, his fingers shaking with repressed anger as dials Ladybug again.

There’s no answer, and before the terror can freeze him into stone, he decides to help everyone else.

The police that surround the area have luckily been kept sane and loveless inside their cruisers. They help him round up the lovestruck students and send home the ones not affected. (a huge part of which were students that were in relationships).

And there’s only one question left. Where is Ladybug?  
—

Marinette, who seems to be the closest civilian friend Ladybug has, looks understandably frustrated. Alya has deftly tied a thin scarf around her friend’s head so that she can’t see and fall in love with someone.

Chat is exhausted and between the inquiries as to where so and so was and whether Adrien was safe or not, he feels stretched thin.

Not to mention, Lovestruck would return for his Miraculous.

And so he asks Marinette for help in finding Ladybug. His worry that she might be among those affected eats away at him…and to give himself credit…it’s mostly the worry that brings the bile to his throat, not jealousy.

“I’m sure…I’m so sorry, I’m sure she’d be here if she could. Something probably happened. I’m going to try and get home to contact her.” Marinette says, her voice cracking and a few tears of frustration dampening the red silk wrapped over her eyes.

Alya miserably pats her back, her glasses tucked into her shirt pocket so that she’s squinting at nothing in particular.

Chat Noir’s scowl softens, and he feels some of the tension leach away to be replaced with exhaustion.

He rubs his forehead in frustration, before answering.

“Hey… you don’t have to be sorry. It’s not your fault and I’m sure she has a good excuse…she’s never let m-…let us down before. We’ll just to have wait for her in a safe place.”

Alya perks up at that, her mouth twisting in a frown of discontent as she contemplates a course of action. Her arms are still wound protectively around Marinette as they sit on a bench in the empty courtyard.

“Can you please take Marinette home? I would if I could, but right now, I can’t see anything without my glasses and I’d rather keep it that way until the akuma is gone. I can’t protect her like this.” She says with a look of equal desperation, her frustration synergizing with Marinette’s as they both slump against each other in defeat.

(I can’t protect you like this either, Marinette thinks in response.)

“You can…you can hide in my room until Ladybug shows up.” Marinette offers him, her mind rapidly concocting a reasonable excuse for tonight when she would have to disappear for a few minutes and reappear as a blindfolded Ladybug.

Chat hesitates at first, looking at the tops of the buildings wistfully…as if any second Ladybug would appear to get them all out of this mess. But it’s wishful thinking, and for once he’s not leaping before thinking.

“Okay, Princess. I’ll take you home and we’ll make a game plan from there.” 

And part of his tension is relieved when he sees Nino, without glasses, carefully feeling his way into the courtyard, eyes squinting so hard, they almost look completely shut.

“I’ll be fine then! It’ll be the blind leading the blind, but Nino and I can help each other get home.” Alya says decidedly, already dusting off her pants and standing up.

She gives Marinette a farewell hug, pats Chat Noir on the shoulder…or rather she means to, but she just ends up awkwardly slapping the side of his head and then she’s making her way towards a stumbling Nino.

Marinette looks a bit panic stricken, with her brows furrowed and her mouth working to say something.

Chat Noir patiently waits for her to speak as he hoists her up and drapes her arm over his shoulder, so that he can guide her over the overturned waste baskets and emptied backpacks.

“Is…where is Adrien? Is he okay?” she blurts out, her mouth set into a grimace.

It’s the sixth time he’s heard the question today. But for some reason, it doesn’t give him that same prickle of annoyance. Not that her inquiry had been any different than the others, but there’s something about it coupled with her vulnerability right now.

She’s asking about him even as she’s struggling to walk, even as she’s blinded for the moment.

And once again, there’s that soft inkling of comfort that sets his heart fluttering when he contemplates their burgeoning friendship.

“He’s fine. I saw him get away into his chauffeur’s car during the evacuation.” He lies a little guiltily, as he leads her through a main street.

It’s uncharacteristically empty, most of the citizens already safely ensconced into their homes or offices.

He’s careful, constantly looking over their heads and tucking her into corners so that they’re not easily spotted in the dimming daylight.

There’s one breathless moment. One stupidly wasteful moment where a trashcan had clattered and he’d panicked.He’d whirled her into the alcove of an older building, a little archway decorated with a giant planter.

Hardly any space for the two of them, hardly enough space between the two of them. His chest pressed against hers, his arms vice like and strained around her taut shoulders.

She smells of peonies, some of her hair drifts up to tickle his nose. But he can’t be distracted.

There’s a strength to her that any other day would have made him grin in appreciation. She accepts his help with a graciousness that’s laced with indignation.

But right now, their nerves are strung too high. There’s a dependency she’s not used to. And here he is, earnestly trying to get her home. 

There’s many things she loves about her cat, and while they’re not enough to make her fall in love, they’re enough to make her love him.

She looks up at him, first in anxiousness and then, her expression softens into a tender smile.

When he finally relaxes and realizes the noise had come from a pouncing alley cat, she thanks him.

“It’s uh…it’s my duty as a hero…but also, I really like saving pretty princesses. It’s like in the old fairytales my mom used to…” He trails off, and although she can’t see anything beyond the sliver of light at the edge of the scarf, she senses the strain in his form, the hurt that seems to pervade him.

“Umm…never mind. I’m saying stupid things again.” He finally says, and she looks like she wants to say more, but he’s relieved when she doesn’t.

They finally make it to the bakery. The delicate glass doors are nearly shattered with the force of the Dupain-Cheng’s worry as they burst out to pull both Marinette and him inside the safety of their home.

Mdme Dupain-Cheng is smoothing down her daughter’s hair, nearly tearful as she traces the folds of the silk scarf still wound around Marinette’s head.

He feels a little awkward. A lot out of place.

But then he’s whirled into a brief dance of embraces and grateful thank you’s. He’s plied with food and baked goods, and he’s reminded sharply that he had forgotten to eat breakfast and now it was almost 6 pm.

The akuma is still at large. Ladybug is still missing. The chaos of the outside world blares from the television and while guilt eats away at him as fast as he eats away at the grilled beef, practicality wins out as Marinette echoes his reasoning.

They sit now in her bedroom, a pile of cookies and cafe au lait set on a tray on her worktable.

She’s nervously nibbling at the edges of a cookie. He’s already on his third.

He thanks the skies that she can’t see the mess he is right now. Hair messy and eyes wide and scared. Crumbs trailing down his pretty suit as they contemplate what to do next.

“I just…this is terrible…but you can’t fix them by yourself. It’s too much. I’m so sorry. I promise we’ll find her soon.” Marinette tells him with a mystifying certainty.

He can’t see her eyes beyond the red silk, but he’s sure their burning with that familiar quiet strength of hers.

He wants to ask her how she knows for sure, but she’s already rambling off into a tangent about how the akuma’s powers work. Her worry making her tongue loose in a way that’s so typically her, it makes his anxiety well up into a nervous chuckle.

She breaks off, listing her head in his direction, trying to get a better grasp of the noise he’s making.

“Are you…are you seriously laughing right now? This is a serious situation.” She chides.

“It is…it’s just…god, I’m so worried about her and I’m stuck in here and you’re blind for now and Alya and Nino had to take off their glasses to protect themselves and this situation is entirely ridiculous.” He threads his hands worried through his hair, and she can hear her divan creak as he tries to stretch out his agitation.

She snorts, a little self deprecatingly as she fiddles with the edge of her pink shirt.

“You’re not…wrong. I’m sorry I’m such a burden…you should’ve just…I mean you could have just tried to find her without me dragging you here.” She says quietly, and he worries that he’s hurt her.

She seems to make herself so much smaller next to him, drawing her knees up to her chest as she leans her head back against the wall. Her hair color shifts in the light, and it looks almost blue in the soft lighting of her room.

His words almost catch in his throat at the familiarity she prompts from him. But he hates seeing her defeated like this.

“You’re not a burden. You’re just a person who got caught up in the trouble and you happen to be the one that Ladybug trusts the most.” He ventures and he flinches when it’s her turn to laugh.

“You’ve got it all wrong. She doesn’t trust me at all. She relies on you entirely, you know that? She really…she really does care about you.” 

He’s entirely surprised by the admission. He takes her bitterness for jealousy that he’s closer to Ladybug than she is.

(But that’s not it at all…she simply trusts him so much more than she trusts herself sometimes.)

The silence almost stretches to discomfort, and he tries to fall back on humor to break the tension.

“I’m guessing you’re not at all tempted to take off that scarf and fall for me?” He jokes. The lifting syllable at the end of his question tells her it’s a joke.

“You’re not the person I want to fall for.” Her mouth twists into a puckered expression of distaste, something torn between a smile and a feigned grimace.  
It’s just a joke.

“Awww, you’re blushing! Maybe I do have a chance!” He crows.

Its just a joke. And somehow it still manages to cause her heart to batter against her throat, and she hides it behind a quick jab at his shoulder.

But unfortunately, Murphy’s Law is still in effect.

See there was a time where Marinette had posters of Adrien tacked all over her wall…and one of those nails was still left behind during her attempt to remove all evidence of her minor crush.

The nail that caught onto the back of scarf. The nail that pulled it away from her eyes as she surged forward to playfully punch Chat Noir.

And for some terrifying, heart racing reason, she can’t close her eyes.

She can’t because he’s simply too beautiful, his wide, unnatural green eyes shimmering underneath the light. Surprise coloring them the same green as sour grapes and leaves in spring.

Then it strikes her…and it strikes him what’s just happened.

She screams and he caterwauls. She’s already put her face in her hands by the time he’s shouted for her to look away. 

In his haste, he’s fallen off the divan and is sprawled painfully on the floor.

There’s quiet. A sudden expectation and almost melancholy (but maybe just the tiniest bit glad) acceptance that the person she’s fallen for is Chat Noir.

Yet, there’s no heart racing. No love declarations or sudden outbursts of singing.

She’s still Marinette…embarrassed and scared and hiding.

Confusion…and then silence.

Chat Noir remembers then. Ivan and Mylene, already dusted and clinging onto each other…but they’d looked terrified, not lovey dovey. Ivan had been comforting her.

And more students escaping, a few couples seeming just fine.

It dawns on him that Lovestruck couldn’t make you fall in love with someone you already were in love with.

It makes no sense at all…no sense unless Marinette was hiding feelings for him…him as Chat Noir.

The question is out before he even has time to bite his tongue. He looks at her, practically defeated and curling up against the wall as she hides her face.

“Marinette…do you…do you have feelings for me?” 

She snaps up at that, cheeks burning and her beautiful eyes…like bluebells…aflame with indignation.

“NO! I….I love Adrien!” 

Again, the words are out before she even has a chance to think. She claps her hands over her mouth, eyes so wide, they swallow the rest of her face up in terror.

Her plan unravels, and beyond the immediacy of her confession, there’s a feeling of relief that accompanies the mortification.

She’s free for now, in spite of all her questions…in spite of the fact that she might be in love with Chat Noir…

But she’ll have to set that aside until the akuma is dealt with.

“I need some…I need some air. Alone.” She says.

Before he has a chance to process her words, before he’s even had a chance to say anything, she’s bolted.

Up the stairs to the roof of her home, and he can’t move…there’s something like ice crawling up his legs…burning and welcome all at the same time because her words keep resounding.

And when he finally has a chance to move, to say something, he’s following her as fast as he can…but he only manages to catch the red flare of magic. The sweet smell of peonies and luck as Ladybug leaps out into the scintillating city with blazing determination.


	2. Circumstantial Luck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Resolution of sorts.

The wind is cruel as it slashes at her raw and exposed skin, but still she doesn’t stop. Desperation and freedom writhe within her, whirling until they thread out through the souls of her feet and send her arcing up against the faint stars.

The metallic screech of her yo-yo is deafening as she repeats the motions. Swing and anchor and pull and release.

Her eyes look for any signs of glitter, sharply bright as she runs away from one problem and towards another.

She doesn’t know how soon Chat Noir will catch up, but she hopes she’s stunned him enough so that he won’t have time to ask questions by the time she finds the akuma.

She’s looking for gold among golden lights, her eyes are burning and her lungs are screaming, and her mind is oddly blank.

It’s no wonder she doesn’t catch the hint of glitter on her side. It’s no wonder she gets caught up in Lovestruck’s attack…a whirlwind of rose gold dust that knocks her out of the sky.

Her nose burns and she wants cough because she may have breathed in some of the overpowering rose scented dust.

She shuts her eyes against the dust, falling roughly on top the flat roof of an office building. She rolls to a stop, sharp pain shooting through her shoulder.

The high pitched laughter that comes from the akuma makes her cringe. She slowly pulls herself up, wincing at the ache that permeates every limb.

Lovestruck may have been a handsome man beneath the ridiculously bright golden robes…she knows he’s a victim, but right now she’s really angry at the circumstance he’s caused.

A confession that wasn’t meant to be heard by the boy she strongly thinks might have a crush on her.

A revelation that she just might hold feelings for said boy, and the guilt that eats away at her is nearly unbearable.

Lovestruck simply presents an acceptable target for all that ire that burns in her chest.

“That was a cheap shot, Lovestruck.” She hisses, already standing again and swinging her yo-yo until it’s a solid disc.

“All is fair in love and war.” The akuma titters, his purple eyes peering over the edge of his gilded cloud. “Even if it means forcing the one you love to love you back.”

“That’s not love. Not at all…who hurt you?” She asks quietly, buying herself sometime.

A look of pain crosses his face, twisting his smile into a grimace.

“She promised. She said yes and then she kissed another man.” He says mournfully, more sorrowful than angry as he looks at the golden engagement ring on his left hand. “So I made her love me. I won.”

His smile is back, cruel and dreamy. And his focus is back on Ladybug.

She wants to shout. Tell him that love and war aren’t two sides of the same coin. That love takes patience and planning and that sometimes there’s no winning. But her distraction worked, she’d discovered where the akuma was hiding.

But by the time she’s dodged another whirlwind attack, Chat Noir makes his appearance.

He stumbles onto the roof, long legs clumsily eating away at the distance between him and her.

He doesn’t look ready for battle. His cheeks are flushed and his eyes are dazed. There’s no one liner…just one long look of unidentified emotions in her direction…things that cause her guilt to twist in her gut and turn into fear.

But she shoves it all deep down.

“Chat! It’s the engagement ring!”

So they fall into the routine. They chase the akuma and he chases them. Chat serves as a distraction, but he’s strangely quiet. And he’s careless, distracted.

It’s inevitable that he would get hit.

He’s dusted. Chat Noir lands in front of a crowd of pedestrians on the sidewalk. He’s okay, but his eyes are shut tight so that he doesn’t fall in love.

His name is torn from her throat, Lovedust shrieks his victory and it’s with dawning horror, she realizes they’ve been lured into a trap. They’d been so distracted, that Lovestruck had lead them to the Champs Elysees.

While many civilians had stayed inside, it hadn’t stopped everyone from going about their nightly business. The sidewalks are still crowded with milling pedestrians and the traffic is lighter than usual, but still slow.

There’s enough targets near a blinded Chat Noir…enough to hamper him as they’re love dusted and set their dreamy sights on him.

He’s still stumbling around by the time Ladybug manages to drive off Lovestruck for a bit. The love bitten victims are already grabbing onto Chat Noir, and he almost disappears behind a heaving crowd of admirers.

“Wait no…ah…I’m sorry, I have someone else I like…oh are you the same person? I can’t…I’m really sorry, but-”He says as he pushes people gently away, but the numbers are overwhelming with him unable to see.

It’s half horrifying and half hilarious as she sees him go down, all the while as he’s giving polite and kind rejections. She reaches him, suspended from the roof, just low enough so that she can catch his reaching hand through the mass of people.

His pretty green eyes are closed, but still he tilts his head in the direction of her sigh of frustration.

“Thanks…My Lady. I love-”

Her heart does a double take, stopping her complaints in her throat.

“I love that I can always count on you.”

And something like relief mingles with disappointment.

“Great. Fine. Just…ughh…first it was me and now you and we are so screwed.”She bites out, and she feels a stab of guilt again at the pained look that crosses his face. The way he seems to curl into himself tells her that she’s hurt his feelings.

“I’m sor-”

“No. Don’t apologize. It wasn’t…You’re just a person who got caught up in all the trouble.” She says bitterly, echoing his earlier words. “I’m sorry I’m not…Chat…about what I said-”

“Marinette.” He calls quietly, and his smile is soft…and the same as before. It’s his smile entirely, edged with affection. “I’m going to open my eyes now.”

He’s not bluffing, already she can see his eyelids fluttering.

Her heart nearly beats out of her chest, and she rushes forward, nearly scrambling on her hands and knees to cover his eyes.

“What are you doing?!” She hisses, but her voice is trembling as she asks. She’s so close, both of them kneeling on the ground, her nose inches from his chin.

He laughs and his warm breath ghosts over her clammy palms and even through the suit, she can feel the softness of it.

It sends shivers slithering down her spine, and her raw cheeks burn with something more pleasant than stinging wind.

“It’s okay…It’ll be fine.” He says blithely, his hands coming up to curl around her wrists delicately.

In the back of her mind, it occurs to her that they’re still in danger. That lovestruck will come back any minute now and that there’s people crying below them because the object of their false affections has gone missing.

“What are you talking about Chat? You can’t…you can’t fall in love with me and fight.” She chides, her eyes darting to his long fingers slowly pulling her hands away from his face. “Wait!”

He stops, his smile turning contemplative his brow twitches underneath her fingers.

“Why not? I’m already in love with you.”

He says it so matter-of-factly, so easily, that for a second she accepts it as fact. And then it hits her, the words tearing a hole into the wellspring of emotions she’d blocked.

Her cheeks are probably redder than her suit by now, she’s seeing stars because she’s not breathing right…but she glances at his fingers around her wrists. Her wrists cloaked in red and spots…not entirely her wrists then…not entirely her.

“You…you can’t. You’re in love with Ladybug…I’m not-”

“You’re Marinette.” He says easily, and he shrugs as if that isn’t the biggest thing in the world. “And you’re Ladybug. I love you.”

Her breath hitches and the tears bead over her lashes, because some part of her is elated. Some part of her she’s long buried underneath a mantra of “I love Adrien” and “I’m not her.”

And guilt, because even if some part of her loves Chat Noir, she still loves Adrien.

She hardly has time to come to a conclusion, when her hands are gently removed from over his eyes.

But they’re still closed.

“Do you trust me?” He asks.

This she can answer easily.

“Of course. More than I trust myself, sometimes.” She whispers.

He seems surprised at that, and then his eyes open. Beautiful and green, the color of sunlight through leaves as he returns her gaze.

She’s unsure of who moves first, but his hands are cradling her face and hers are winding softly around his neck.

_I love…I love…I love…_

The mantra twists and writhes, until it’s lost in the clarity that his touch brings. His forehead rests against hers, his eyes never leaving her bluebell eyes.

“Look at me. Never stop looking at me. He can’t beat us that way, because I love you and…” He pauses for a bit, his expression shifting with fear for a bit before resolving into determination.

She’s waiting. Because she won’t deny it if he says she loves him…maybe on some level she does. The spell didn’t work. That was the only answer. The only answer that made sense in the blinding colors of her own feelings.

“You love Adrien.”

She wants to apologize. She wants to say that she’s torn. That it’s not quite as clear cut as she had made herself believe…but then his smile is huge. So big that it crinkles his eyes at the corners.

“I’m Adrien.” He whispers, and then he pulls away.

“I don’t…what?!” She shrieks.

“Here, I’ll prove it.” He says as he peels back the edge of his glove and shows her a very familiar, very distinctive bracelet with jade beads. His smile is soft as he remembers. “You gave it to me for good luck.”

There’s nothing but an ear splitting soft screeching that comes from her.

Her mouth is working comically to say something, to say anything…but there’s a hint of glittering pink and the scent of rose that drifts around them.

“He’s back.” Chat announces, already settling into a crouch and pulling his glove over the bracelet. But he takes a moment to look back at her…Marinette…Ladybug…Marinette. “Keep your eyes on me, My Lady. And I can’t keep mine off of you, so there’s no problem there.”

He dashes off with giddy laugh, nearly manic with his relief.

(He’d always told himself, whoever the girl was beneath the mask, he loved her. Turns out, he’s not a liar. Not even to himself.)

And Marinette is reeling. She’s spinning, she’s crying, she’s laughing…on the inside. On the outside, her mouth is still mumbling incoherent curses. She’s keeping her sight on Chat and her other four senses on Lovestruck.

Something beyond it all rises in her throat.  
It’s irritation. It’s anger at being interrupted from what is probably a life changing moment.

But she never takes her eyes off of Chat Noir. And he never stops looking at her.

They twist beautifully through the air, arching and swinging in something that seems choreographed as Lovestruck is overwhelmed.

His dust flies uselessly, aiming for two targets that slip away like mist in sunlight.

Her Luckycharm is blinding. A silky red ribbon that she stretches between her and her partner. A scintillating red ribbon that she wraps around her wrist and that he wraps around his as they move on tandem to bind him.

And they’re laughing. There’s fear in them. But there’s also love sparking between their gazes. Real love and it makes Lovestruck weak with jealousy.

By the time the ribbon completely binds him and Chat Noir holds his baton to his neck as a threat, he’s already given up. Hawkmoth’s screams of frustration fade away from his head as Ladybug crushes the engagement ring with her heel.

She purifies the akuma and sets the little white butterfly adrift without her usual goodbye.

The man who had been Lovestruck is still slumped against an air conditioning unit, slowly waking up from his ordeal

She’s too preoccupied not looking at Chat Noir who is…who is Adrien.

She goes through the rest of the motions, but when she’s about to throw the ribbon into the air to complete the ritual, she feels it catch on something.

She tugs a bit more, and finds Chat Noir holding the other end again.

He tugs on it this time, a small smile curling across his face as she stumbles closer until she’s nearly in his embrace.

She can’t really look him in the eye again. The adrenaline of the battle has gone away, she can’t justify it to herself anymore. She pulls back on the ribbon.

He doesn’t let go.

She frowns and clicks her tongue.

“Do you enjoy having a crowd of sobbing admirers or something?” She bites out, gesturing awkwardly to the wails still floating up from below.

“No. I enjoy having you as an admirer.” He banters, and she feels a little angry that he’s using this new development against her.

It’s still too new, too confusing for his humor to alleviate her roiling emotions.

“In your dreams.” She growls, before pulling hard enough to dislodge the ribbon from his grip.

She glares at him hard enough to make him bite back his retort.

Without missing a beat, she tosses up the lucky charm in the air, shouts Miraculous Ladybug!, and the spell curls around the city, healing everyone and bringing relief to a long day of uncertainty.

The man fully wakes in the warmth of the magic and runs down the stairs when he realizes he’s being given death glares by Paris’ famed heroes.

The door slams in his wake, and it’s too loud in the sudden quiet that rests between the two of them.

The silence stretches painfully, as taut as the ribbon had been when they’d been connected for a few brief moments.

A brief beeping that lets her know her time is running out.

“I have to go.” She says with relief, not moving despite her words.

“Please.” He pleads, his voice laced with a desperation she’s not used to hearing. He’s standing all alone now, half reaching for her and half recoiling from something he’s not sure is acceptance or rejection.

He’d been so happy…ecstatic…grateful when the full force of her confession and her identity had coalesced into understanding.

She loved him. He loved her. It was that simple in his mind. He’d always loved the girl underneath the mask. That had never been a lie.

But he wonders if Chat Noir is so different from Adrien…if she loves the other part of him that isn’t always making mistakes.

He just needs to talk. He just wants to know, because he’s irrevocably, entirely-

“-in love with you.”

Her words, not his. And he feels guilty again because he hadn’t been listening close enough to hear the first part.

“What?”

She closes her eyes, scrunches up her face in fear as if she’s been love dusted all over again and she’s afraid of falling for a random person.

That really hurts him. Stings enough to make him stop reaching for her and drop his hands to his sides.

“I’m in love with you.” She blurts out. “I’ve been in love with you since you gave me your umbrella.”

And it’s so tiring, this back and forth. This prolonged acceptance because he just needs to know what she feels and holy crap- she just said she was in love with him.

He’s already moving and she’s still talking with her eyes closed.

“Or maybe it was when you told me to believe in myself during our first fight. And I’m still trying to process all of this and I just…all I know is that I lo-”

Her words are muffled into his shoulder as she’s pulled into a breath stealing embrace.

He’s laughing into her hair, his nose nuzzling at the crown of her head as he tells her over and over “I love you too.”

And there’s so much more to be settled. So much more to ask and resolve and realize, but for now, the circumstance is only right for this.

For a moment where he tilts his head towards hers and a moment where she threads her fingers through his golden hair. And a moment where their lips meet in a sweet, simple kiss that marks their circumstantial luck as complete.

**Author's Note:**

> Not as humorous as I first intended with that Tumblr post.


End file.
